Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Times Warp:
"Billions in Taxpayer Money to Israel: How the NYT Hides Unsavory Facts from View. Thanks to American taxpayers, Israel has been receiving $3.1 billion in direct military aid each year, and under a new agreement signed this week that amount is set to rise to $3.8 annually. This is a hefty package and major news, but The New York Times has been oddly reticent about it, running a story on page 6 of the print edition and without fanfare online.

This is not a new phenomenon at the Times. Over the past year, as the United States and Israel have negotiated a new 10-year memorandum of understanding concerning military aid, readers have seen few references to the topic, and even with the signing of a new agreement this week, the newspaper maintains its minimalist approach.
The article by Peter Baker and Julie Hirschfeld Davis gives few details of the deal, instead proving a great deal of space to the state of U.S.-Israeli relations. ...

In addition, donations sent by Jewish and Christian groups to support settlements are tax-exempt. So every dollar donated to support the colonization of Palestinian land means the loss of at least 20 cents that should go into the U.S. treasury."

-->Hiding the truth about Israel has always been a priority at the NYT. Often the newspaper is little more than a propaganda vehicle for Israeli apartheid. 

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Common Dreams:
"Backing up the Standing Rock Sioux and its allies, a United Nations expert has called on the United States to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Echoing pipeline opponents' concerns, the statement from the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, cited the pipeline's threats to drinking water and sacred sites. She also admonished the U.S. for failing to protect protesters' rights and failing to properly consult with communities affected by the fossil fuel infrastructure.

'The tribe was denied access to information and excluded from consultations at the planning stage of the project, and environmental assessments failed to disclose the presence and proximity of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation,' Tauli-Corpuz stated Thursday—just two days after Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II urged the UN Human Rights Council to help the tribe stop the pipeline. ...

Responding to the crackdown on pipeline protesters, she said, 'The U.S. authorities should fully protect and facilitate the right to freedom of peaceful assembly of indigenous peoples, which plays a key role in empowering their ability to claim other rights.' " 

-->No word yet from the US media, including the NYT. The elite business class wants this pipeline, and our media usually falls in line by omitting stories like this.

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The Electronic Intifada:
"Editors at two of the most widely read Palestinian online publications have had their Facebook accounts disabled. Administrators for the Facebook pages of Quds, which has more than five million 'likes,' and Shehab News Agency, which has more than six million, found they could not access their accounts on Friday.

Ezz al-Din al-Akhras, a supervisor at Quds, told The Electronic Intifada that at around 2pm, three of the publication’s editors found their accounts disabled. The same thing has happened to five editors at Shehab News Agency, a news editor for that publication told The Electronic Intifada. ...

Both believe that the suspensions are directly related to an agreement between Facebook and the Israeli government to collaborate in monitoring what Israel claims is 'incitement' by Palestinians. 'The joint Facebook-Israel censorship efforts, needless to say, will be directed at Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians who oppose Israeli occupation,' The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald wrote of the agreement earlier this month."

-->How long will readers of the NYT wait for this story to be printed? Sadly, the NYT doesn't cover free speech issues that involve Palestinians.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Common Dreams:
"It has been revealed that the maker of a powerful, addictive opioid drug is bankrolling the opposition to the effort to legalize and regulate marijuana for recreational use in Arizona.

The Phoenix New Times reported Thursday that Insys Therapeutics, the company behind the fentanyl-based medication Subsys, made a $500,000 donation to the group Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy (ARDP), which is leading the campaign against Proposition 205. On the ballot in November, Prop. 205 would allow people 21 years of age or older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana ...

'You have a company using profits from the sale of what has been called the most potent and dangerous opioid on the market to prevent adults from using a far less harmful substance," Holyoak said [chair of the Prop. 205].

-->Big Pharma trying to keep people addicted to narcotics? The story didn't interest the NYT, which often protects the pharmaceutical industry.

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The Guardian UK:
"The rate of serious injuries caused by police and private security increased nearly 50% from 2001 to 2014, according to a new study from Harvard public health researchers that looked at emergency room visits.

An article published this week reviewed hospital emergency room data to analyze non-fatal injuries following 'legal intervention' – defined in this study as a wound inflicted by police officers or private security guards. In the 14-year period examined, the rate of these injuries per 100,000 people increased by 47.4%. The analysis is one of few that can provide a longitudinal study of police use of force over time, according to lead author Justin Feldman.

The article also concluded that black civilians, and particularly black men, are significantly more likely to be injured by police than their white counterparts, a trend carried over in numerous analyses of police killings and fatal shootings."

-->Why wouldn't the NYT carry this story? Our newspaper of record sees it's role as protecting the establishment. In this case, it didn't want to make the cops look worse than they already do. We have to go to a foreign newspaper to read research done on American cops by Harvard University.

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The Guardian UK:
"Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger jeopardized US efforts to stop mass killings by Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship by congratulating the country’s military leaders for 'wiping out' terrorism, according to a large trove of newly declassified state department files.

The documents, which were released on Monday night, show how Kissinger’s close relationship to Argentina’s military rulers hindered Jimmy Carter’s carrot-and-stick attempts to influence the regime during his 1977-81 presidency."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/09/henry-kissinger-mass-killings-argentina-declassified-files

-->The NYT doesn't cover Kissinger war crimes. Why remind readers how terrible he was since he is Hillary's role model?

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The Guardian UK:
"The aging former head of Argentina’s air force has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the abduction and disappearance of a married couple of young activists during this country’s bloody 1976-83 dictatorship. ...

At the time of her abduction, Roisinblit, a 25-year-old medical student, was eight months pregnant. She was kept alive by her captors for several weeks, then murdered after she gave birth. Her newborn baby boy was handed over to air force intelligence operative Francisco Gómez and his wife Teodora Jofre to raise as their own.

Roisinblit’s son, Guillermo Pérez Roisinblit, only found out his true identity at the age of 21 and was a plaintiff in the trial. Gómez, the man who he grew up believing was his father, was sentenced to 12 years for his part in the affair."

-->Of course, these are the types of crimes that Kissinger was particularly fond of. The mainstream media generally hides these stories, although ABC news did cover it.

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

The NYT:
"From the cramped confines of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum four years ago amid a legal imbroglio, Mr. Assange proffered a vision of America as superbully: a nation that has achieved imperial power by proclaiming allegiance to principles of human rights while deploying its military-intelligence apparatus in 'pincer' formation to 'push' countries into doing its bidding, and punishing people like him who dare to speak the truth.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/europe/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia.html?_r=0

-->Has the NYT finally decided to tell the truth about the empire that it has so often defended? Not really. In an extensive, front page article, our newspaper of record tries to make the case that Mr. Assange is really part of a huge Russian conspiracy, all directed at the United States. No, the NYT is not giving serious consideration to all the wrongdoing that Assange exposes. Instead the paper spends over ten columns of print speculating about his connections to Russia, even including a huge picture of a menacing Assange tinted an appropriate red color.  

All this would be foolishness, of course, were it not for the fact that Hillary is hell bent on creating a new Cold War. That's what this article should have been about: the candidate who "proclaims human rights" while pushing the US to a nuclear confrontation with Russia, that would mean the end of all life on the planet.  

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Common Dreams:
" 'Is That Not Genocide?' Pipeline Co. Bulldozing Burial Sites Prompts Emergency Motion. In a last ditch attempt to protect burial and prayer sites, North Dakota's Standing Rock Sioux late Sunday filed for a temporary restraining order to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they say has already caused 'irreparable harm' to the sacred plots.

'On Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts,' said tribal chairman David Archambault II in a press statement. ...

The emergency motion came after security forces hired by the pipeline company attacked Indigenous demonstrators with dogs and pepper spray on Saturday."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/05/not-genocide-pipeline-co-bulldozing-burial-sites-prompts-emergency-motion

-->Amy Goodman from Democracy Now was there to film the bloody mouths of the attack dogs. Reuters and Associated Press ran stories about the confrontation, but nothing from the NYT, which is in bed with the major banks funding this pipeline through indigenous lands. Bank of America and Goldman Sacks determine what gets covered in our newspaper of record.

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Common Dreams:
"U.S. Special Operations Forces training missions to Latin America tripled between 2007 and 2014, newly obtained documents by a human rights advocacy organization reveal, offering further evidence that it is 'the golden age' of secret operations by these elite fighters.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) says the uptick happened during 'a period when overall military aid to the region was decreasing' and as overall transparency about these forces, which include the Green Berets, the Navy SEALs, and Rangers, is waning. ...

The highest number of missions—21—took place in Honduras.  Most of those occurred from 2011 to 2014, a period 'when serious allegations levied against Honduran security forces—murder, torture, rape and extortion—went uninvestigated and unpunished.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/31/us-special-ops-training-latin-america-tripled-docs-reveal

-->Yes, the US is back training death squads in Latin America. The NYT hasn't mentioned it, even though its candidate for president was the driving force behind legitimizing the current bloody military regime in Honduras. Hillary was all for overthrowing Honduras' last elected president. 

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Thursday, September 01, 2016

The Guardian UK:
"Sheldon Adelson, the Nevada casino mogul and conservative mega-donor, is leading a campaign against pro-Palestine groups on US college campuses and has funded a group that has publicly accused individual students of supporting terrorism and promoting 'Jew Hatred'.

The multimillion-dollar effort, which has launched at six campuses in California, is targeting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that has become increasingly popular among American university students protesting the Israeli government.

At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), recent posters named 16 students and professors, saying they 'have allied themselves with Palestinian terrorists to perpetuate BDS and Jew Hatred on this campus'. It further claimed BDS was a 'Hamas-inspired genocidal campaign to destroy Israel.' ”

-->The mainstream media is largely silent about this vicious attack on freedom of speech on the nation's campuses. Pro Israel elected officials, fat with Israeli lobby contributions, are more then willing to sell out our Constitutional rights. The NYT didn't cover this story.

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The Guardian UK:
"The UN secretary-general has called for the appointment of 'eminent person or persons' to pursue an investigation into the death of his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld in a mysterious 1961 air crash in central Africa.

Declaring 'this may be our last chance to find the truth' Ban Ki-moon sent a note to the general assembly, saying there were enough unanswered questions arising from the crash to warrant further investigation and that the responses of the UK, US and Belgium (the major powers in the region at the time) to a UN request for archive material 'do not appear to alter' that conclusion.

In particular Ban noted that the UK had stuck to its position last year that it had no further documentation to show the UN investigation. He appended a letter sent in June by the British permanent representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, saying 'our position remains the same and we are not able to release the materials in question without any redactions.' "

-->Reuters covered this story and so did the Associated Press. Why not our newspaper of record, the NYT? Perhaps the truth about his assassination at the hands of a UK and US special operations team is just too damning. If the head of the UN can be murdered by the CIA, why not JFK and Martin Luther King? 

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Common Dreams:
"Venezuela's leftist president Nicolas Maduro told a crowd of supporters Saturday that the turmoil of recent months in progressive Latin American countries are the result of 'an imperialist attack on all,' teleSUR reports.

In his speech, Maduro referred to the impeachment process against Workers' Party president Dilma Rousseff—widely decried as a 'coup' by many observers—and the recent murder of a Bolivian vice minister by striking miners.
'It's an imperialist attack against all,' said Maduro, according to teleSUR. 'From Venezuela we will fight the coup of the oligarchy.'

Maduro compared the current situation to Operation Condor, the brutal U.S.-backed campaign that killed and 'disappeared' leftists and installed repressive rightwing dictatorships in Latin American countries in the 1970s and 1980s."

-->Again, Reuters and The Associated Press cover a story, but not the NYT. The NYT considers itself an important part of imperial propaganda. It would never report a story that challenges the Pentagon's version of events in Latin America.